Blast 106 has won a High Court battle with UK radio regulator Ofcom to continue broadcasting after the regulator decided not to renew its licence.
Ofcom said the station had failed to meet key commitments on speech and music content and would let its current five year licence expire on July 7th. But in a last minute judicial review a judge said that the Ofcom process was unfair and disproportionate.
Mr Justice Treacy reversed the regulator’s decision and ordered an extension of Blast 106’s community radio licence. He said: “In my view it was unfair for the breach decision and the no extend decision to have been taken without conscientious engagement with the request for an oral hearing.”
Ofcom reported last month that it had monitored the station over three days in January 2013 and in February 2014 and found Blast was not sticking to its Key Commitments.
It’s reported that a request from Blast 106’s solicitors for an oral hearing after learning the regulator’s preliminary view was ignored
Read more in this report from the Belfast Telegraph.